Monday, December 3, 2012

Ryan Edel will present "Rhetorical Realities: Native American Resistance to the Bering Strait Migration Theory and the Political Appropriation of Knowledge"

Abstract: In Red Earth, White Lies, Vine Deloria, Jr., actively challenges the Bering Strait migration theory on the grounds that it is not only insufficiently supported by scientific evidence, but that the theory itself has been used to label the Native American presence in the Western Hemisphere as mere immigration, hence devaluing Native American rights in relation to the later Euro-American colonists. The resulting dispute with scientists is emblematic of a larger cultural disconnect between scientists, nonscientists, and those who appropriate scientific data in order to promote political aims.

I argue that scientists' attempts to position themselves as apolitical has prevented them from resisting (and has at times caused them to actively participate in) the Euro-American misappropriation of scientific evidence to justify the oppression of Native Americans. As a result, Native Americans who would resist the imposed ethos of Euro-American colonization are forced to also to reject the logos of science.

My methodology involves extending Thomas Kuhn's conception of the scientific paradigm to Sharon Crowley's consideration of Christian fundamentalism in order to examine the rhetorical disconnect between scientists of the Francis Bacon tradition and strict followers of Native American and Judeo-Christian creation narratives. I will then discuss resistance to the Bering Strait theory as compared to the Christian-sponsored promotion of intelligent design.

Ryan Edel is a second-year Ph.D. student in creative writing and rhetoric at Illinois State University. In his creative works, he explores science fiction as a way to develop the ""coming-of-age"" story in a rapidly-changing society. His rhetorical focus is on examining the uses of political rhetoric to establish and reinforce common cultural realities.

Ryan is currently the Technology Coordinator for the ISU Writing Program, and his pedagogical goals include utilizing technology to increase and enhance student-to-teacher and student-to-student interactions outside the classroom.

Previously, he earned his MFA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins. He also served five years in the U.S. Army, including three years with the 82nd Airborne Division and a ten-month deployment to Afghanistan.

Abstract: Sharon Crowley has argued that “[c]ommonplaces are part of the discursive machinery that hides the flow of difference, that firms up identity and sameness within a community."" In the field of writing studies, and, more broadly, rhetoric, commonplaces concerning the existence and nature of learning transfer concretize the community’s identity as one that is able to “help students learn how to write,” and thus, contribute to the shape and efficacy of the general university. Most transfer scholarship in this vein can be traced back to David Bartholomae’s seminal argument that students learning to write must “invent the university” by performing understanding in appropriating both the language and forms suitable to the particular disciplinary contexts of the academy. Though this scholarship enables me to join the conversation on transfer in this presentation, the weight of the learning-in-context commonplace suggests that as a field, our notions have transfer have become, as Crowley puts it, too firm in shoring up our identity. Loosening this commonplace requires attention to other, less dominant discourses of transfer circulating in the field. As such, at issue here are not questions such as “Does transfer happen?” and “If so, how?” but rather how we might theorize this concept in ways that account for the complexities of learning in multiple situations. Given that exigency, my presentation seeks to provide not a framework from which to understand if and how writing students use skills across contexts, but more broadly to bring together general systems theories and activity theories in order to provide a basis for observing how boundaries mediate instances where writers repurpose knowledge and actions.

Moria Torrington is a second year Ph.D. student in composition and rhetoric, with a focus on writing studies, activity theories, and learning transfer.

Jeffrey D. Reints will present "Text and Paratext in the Literary Hoax"

Abstract: Can a fake have real value? Two poetic forgeries appearing in the first half of the twentieth century, the Darkening Ecliptic of Australian prodigy Ern Malley and the avante garde Spectric School of verse, challenge our notions of authenticity by their achievement of literary fame despite their dubious origins. Often dismissed as “crimes” against literature or pranks at the expense of the reading public, these works call into question the implicit trust in the relationship between author and reader.

This paper proposes the rehabilitation of the literary hoax as a legitimate genre, reclaiming these "phony" texts from the dustbin of history. Literary hoaxes will be distinguished from the genres they imitate by their unique features, rather than the purported ethical boundaries that are used to distance them from similar works enshrined in the literary canon. The primary mode of inquiry will be an examination of deployment of prefaces, introductions, and other paratextual elements. The interaction between poem and preface creates a totality of text that is both fiction and nonfiction, verse and prose, thereby problematizing the relationship between author, reader, and text,

Following Bakhtin's theory of the literary chronotope, I will offer a working definition of the genre of the literary hoax that focuses on this uniquely entangled relationship between text and paratext. The continuity of the genre will be established by touching upon it roots in ancient pseudoedpigraphia, its prototypes in early first person novels, and the grand literary hoaxes of the late eighteenth century.

Jeff Rients is a master's student in the area of English literature with a focus on the study of hoaxes literary and otherwise. His interest in this area dates to 2006 when he was the ‘victim’ of a hoax. Ask him about it some time. Since then he has been grappling with why hoaxes bother some people (and not others) and why authenticity is so valued in our heavily constructed and mediated culture.

Abstract: An English Studies model that encourages students to explore the hybridity of their scholarship can provide valuable opportunities, but can also ask students to rise to new challenges in their graduate study. As graduate students from diverse fields, we think it would be valuable to share our experiences with this model and facilitate a group discussion of the ways it has benefited us and enriched our research, while also being candid about the challenges we face in attempting to integrate an English Studies perspective into our academic pursuits.

We propose facilitating a round-table discussion about our experiences with English Studies at the 2013 New Direction Conference. Rather than each presenting a more formal paper, we would begin by each spending just a few minutes informally describing our experiences. We would then open the session to questions from the audience about our perspectives, while also hoping to create more of a discussion atmosphere within the session where we can also learn from the ideas and experiences of those who attend the session. Although we hope to answer questions from our audience, we also will have prepared questions for them and will work to facilitate a round-table style panel that offers an interactive experience for participants.

Each member of our panel represents a distinctive sub-discipline of English Studies: Meghann studies children’s literature, Sarah works in linguistics, Hilary’s focus is rhetoric and composition and Kathleen is completing her graduate work in creative writing. What is more, we each are situated within different stages of our graduate work and represent various perspectives in our educational backgrounds. Yet we have something in common—we have been able to develop our scholarship in meaningful ways through forays into other fields, while also acknowledging the challenges of doing so effectively. Thus, we believe we would represent a strong collaborative effort to speak to these issues in meaningful ways.

Meghann Meeusen studies children’s literature at ISU as a third year doctoral student, but also uses genre and CHAT theory coming out of rhetoric and composition studies to shape her pedagogy and develop her research into children’s adaptation and visual texts. Before coming to ISU, she began by exploring career paths in elementary education, followed by receiving an MA in literature. Meghann will speak to these diverse background experiences and research interests in the roundtable discussion, as well as discuss her recently completed English Studies comprehensive exam.

Kathleen E. Miller is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate specializing in creative writing at Illinois State University. She has taught first year composition and creative writing courses at ISU and has worked as the Professional Development Coordinator for the Writing Program. She received her B.A. from Saint Mary’s College and her M.A. from the University of Dayton. Her most recent work was accepted as a part of Jaded Ibis Press’s anthology The Dirty Dirty, which will be published later this year. Kathleen’s research interests include innovative writing, creative writing and FYC pedagogy, genre studies, theories of authorship, and postmodernism.

Hilary Selznick is a third-year PhD specializing in rhetoric and composition with an emphasis on rhetorical disability studies and medical rhetoric. Her primary focus is on normalizing discourses, which she uses as the theme of her composition courses. Previously, Hilary received an MFA in Creative Writing (creative nonfiction) at Western Michigan University and has a Master’s in Education. Her work if forthcoming in JAC and has appeared in Technocultre: An Online Journal of Technology and Culture, New South, Brevity, and Passages North.

Sarah Hercula is in her second year of doctoral study pursuing a specialization in linguistics. Specifically, she is interested in the sociolinguistic situations of marginalized varieties of English and is drawing upon the work of scholars in fields as diverse as TESOL, Second Language Writing, English Education, and Composition Studies for her research. Sarah has a B.A. and an M.A. in English Education from Western Michigan University. Sarah has taught in a variety of different educational settings including middle school mathematics, high school English, first-year composition, and English as a Second Language.

Abstract: I am proposing an individual paper focusing on the hybrid topics of culture and composition. In my presentation I would like to explore the hybridity of composition pedagogy and cultural studies and what this hybridity could look like in a 101 classroom, along with CHAT. These components of the English Studies model can, and I would argue, should, be used in more hybrid ways in the composition classroom. Most Illinois State University students are from the same geographical area of central Illinois. While these students do have a culture, they may not realize that they do and they may not be aware of the way that their culture and the compositions they create intersect with people or texts or compositions of other cultures. I would like to argue that this kind of cultural awareness is really important to teach in our 101 composition classrooms, because the creation of texts in those classrooms are influenced by and do reflect other cultural texts, whether we realize it or not. CHAT fits into this model really well, as it will help students identify these concepts. Addressing the hybridity issues of culture and composition engages issues of awareness and the willingness to see the lines of “Self” and “Other” as blurry, and thus addresses the idea of identity. I would like to explore some of these different issues and the ways that instructors can help students make these connections and open up a “in between” cultural space for our students in the 101 classroom.

Kayla Bruce is in her first year of her Master's in English, focusing on Composition and Rhetoric. She is interested in the way that Cultural Studies intersects with the field of Composition and Composition Pedagogy. She hopes to pursue a PhD after her Master's program in order to teach at the college level. She is interested in studying Composition Pedagogy and the way it works in introductory composition classrooms.

Abstract: For this presentation, I want to look at the works of Justin Martyr, primarily his first apology, from the perspective of cybernetics, primarily through Hayles’ work in How We Became Posthuman. Although the first apology has been criticized as a flawed argument, Justin nevertheless draws on Greek philosophers, embodied in the 2nd Sophistic, the period during which he lived. Although Justin can be interpreted through a comparison with Plato’s Apology, his apology also represents the work made possibly by the technology of writing. Although the premise underlying cybernetics and systems theories is their universal application, the principles Hayles lays out in her project seem to be more evident during periods of upheaval or in the conflicts between philosophies, religions, and political systems.
Although Christians were subject to persecution in the Roman Empire during Justin’s lifetime, this persecution was often selective. Justin seems to have drawn more attention to himself through the publication of his apology. He subjected himself to risk through the embodiment of his faith through his texts. Through the technology of writing, he also establishes a virtual audience with the emperor of Rome and his sons (biological and adopted).
Justin’s apology also reveals the degree to which Christianity, while suggesting a virtual presence of the adherent in heaven, is invested in embodiment through baptism of the body and partaking in the eucharist. In the end, Justin embodies his philosophy/faith (the two are not distinct) through martyrdom.

Elizabeth L. Jones: I am a full-time instructor of composition at University of Illinois Springfield and a part-time PhD student at Illinois State University. My interests lie in rhetorics about public lands, religion, music, and animal welfare issues. Within these studies, I have focused on the concepts of normativity and subjectivity, and I am interested in normativity in both negative and positive connotations. The program in which I teach is based in a combination of social constructionist theories and genre theory.

Lisa Phillips will present "Minding
the Smell of the Weather: A ‘Whether’ Phenomenon"

Abstract: While
some argue that human activities impact weather patterns, others contend that
the earth has natural cycles that are not fundamentally changed by human
action. I agree with Katherine Hayles’s argument that “an observer makes a cut
… to tame the noise of the world by introducing a distinction, which can be
understood in its elemental sense as
a form, as boundary between inside and outside” (Hayles 137, my emphasis).
Drawing upon Katherine Hayles’s articulation, I focus on the agency of odor to
transform perceptions as supported by research that links smells with
“intersensory” perceptions of place, space, ethics, and politics (Connolly).
Surely, as Rosi Braidotti asserts, it is right to ground work in service to
“biopower,”and underscore aims to expand, enmesh, and complicate conversations
about “life” and “matter-ialism” in order to consider a more nuanced view of
political and ethical issues that sway intergenerational responsibilities
(Braidotti 201; 212; 215).

Because
the Salton Sea—the largest inland body of water in California—emitted an
extremely noxious odor and unusual weather patterns drove the scent north to
Los Angeles and beyond, millions of people were forced to notice the
environmental degradation of a specific ecosystem by human and non-human
activities. The object of this presentation is the Salton Sea’s odor on
September 10, 2012, and the rhetoricity surrounding olfactory perception of the
environment is its subject. After Sarah Ahmed, I seek sense making and
rhetorical navigation as I notice the ways in which “orientations matter” to
material living bodies affected by current rhetoric surrounding climate change.
I will also examine how an independent documentary film, The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, focuses on the sea’s
odor, as the film provides additional intersensory input to contextualize the
complexity of the situation. The film is a hybrid genre that combines visual
anthropology with a “stylized aesthetic” in order to move away from traditional
“nature” documentaries.

Lisa Phillips is a second-year doctoral candidate in English Studies at Illinois State University. Her area of concentration is rhetorical theory, and her research interests include sensory rhetorics, American Indian rhetorics and literature, contemporary material ecocriticism, and feminism. Phillips received her master’s degree in Visual Culture from the School of Art at Illinois State in 2010. Her most recent presentation, at the 2012 Midwest Modern Language Association conference, addressed repatriation of American Indian objects to indigenous communities. Her presentation at the 2011 College Composition and Communication Feminist workshop discussed connections between language, smell, and trauma. Phillips’ 2012 publication in the journal "J.A.C." reviewed "American Iconographic: National Geographic, Global Culture, and the Visual Imagination" by Stephanie L. Hawkins.

Abstract:The purpose of this presentation is to describe and to show the construction of a hybrid creative work. Hybridity in the realm of creative writing is a relatively new genre and one that is unfamiliar to most. Furthermore, those who write in the hybrid genre have not clearly defined it. The genre is a prime example of hybridity in that it asks writers to create a text from multiple genres and texts. The formation of such writing may seem mysterious or haphazard to uninformed viewers. To others, it may remind them of Huckleberry Finn’s concept of borrowing versus stealing, but creative writers prefer the term appropriation. Writers may appropriate texts from any source such as articles, other fictional work, songs, advertisements, etc. But they need not be strictly text, but also can be pictures and video. The combination of these works is the creative part and one that I intend to describe and demonstrate with the goal of defining and demystifying the creation of work in this genre. Katie DuBois is a first year Master's student in the English Department on the creative writing track. Her focus is on hybrid work, using both linguistics and German as influences. She has presented in two undergraduate symposia while a student at Lake Forest College. Her work has previously been included in the University's literary magazine, Euphemism, and the Lake Forest College foreign language magazine, Collage.

Abstract: As a writer of nonfiction, in this piece I'm working with lyrical prose as well as poetry. At the heart of the piece is growing up, hybridy of place and belonging, and the trauma of growing up, especially colored by disability and longing for the less traumatic... In this nonfictional piece, I also want to focus on the heartache of shattered dreams as well as domestic violence packaged in brutal patriarchy. The disruption of innocence and the quest for greener pastures is once more ruptured by illness and disability. This is a song of yearning, a reflection of the bygone, and a meditation on the here and now.

Lasantha Rodrigo is a fourth year Ph.D. student, focusing on creative writing, especially through lenses of trauma, sexuality, racial othernness, and disability. Previously published in Sri Lanka (Man's Mission magazine, Explore Sri Lanka magazine), India (Oxford University Press, Scholastic), and the U.S. (Anak Sastra, SNReview). Earned a BA in theater and English Literature from Pacific Lutheran University, WA and two MAs from St. Bonaventure University, NY and University of Rochester, NY respectively.

Laurenn D. Jerema will present "Complicating Composition: The Hybridity of Writing and Speaking in the Composition Process"

Abstract: I would like to explore the hybridity of writing and speaking. Traditionally, individuals have focused on written aspects of the composition process, such as writing outlines, drafts, and revisions. When speaking is incorporated into the composition classroom, it’s treated as a separate task from writing, such as giving a speech after composing a work. Thus, I plan to present how incorporating speaking components into the composition process provides a unique perspective to one’s work. Strategies such as reading one’s work aloud or having another individual read a writer’s work aloud to him or her allows writers to hear how their work actually sounds outside of the image they have constructed in their head. Elements such as tone and style can be explored to a greater extent when hearing a written piece read aloud, since writers typically have preconceived notions of these elements that are not questioned unless they hear them in a new voice. My presentation would begin by explaining some of the theory that supports incorporating speaking into written composition processes, including elements of Jason Palmeri’s Remixing Composition: A History of Multimodal Writing Pedagogy. Next, I would discuss specific lessons/activities/ideas to utilize when emphasizing speaking while writing. These ideas include reading writing aloud, having students interview each other about their composition processes, and conducting a peer review that encourages and requires a conversation between author and reviewer. These activities help students view writing in a new way and understand the benefits of combining writing and speaking while composing.

Laurenn Jarema is a first year English Master’s student at ISU with a specialization in Rhetoric and Composition. Her research interests focus on Composition Pedagogy, and specifically, on alternative methods for teaching composition in the classroom. It is these research issues that have led Laurenn to consider how the hybridity of writing and speaking can be incorporated in the classroom to positively impact students’ experiences with composition and assist them in viewing their text in new ways.

Kera B. Storrs will present "Dressed for Success: The Power of Social Protocols and Appropriate Attire in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters"

Abstract: Utilizing feminist, new historicist, and cultural studies perspectives, this paper will examine how Victorian women (by adhering to particular mandates of etiquette and dress) could assert feminine agency and establish or maintain a respectable place in society. The mastery of specific social protocols was critical for gaining and maintaining middle class respectability in Victorian England. While Elizabeth Gaskell seamlessly interwove social etiquette and dress culture into all of her work, Wives and Daughters perhaps best illustrates the extent to which these cultural dictates dominated Victorian lives. Gaskell’s work effectively illuminates some of the ways in which Victorian women could regain power within a highly patriarchal society. Participation in particular community activities and the exhibition of proper attire were crucial for social advancement as they constructed and helped maintain both group and individual identities. Gaskell’s novel reinforces what was already poignantly articulated in contemporary ladies’ magazines and etiquette manuals; for, like Cynthia and Mrs. Gibson, many Victorians already firmly believed that adherence to fashion and etiquette dictates could not only increase one’s social status but had the potential to heal or destroy lives. Beyond her commentary on gender ideals in Victorian society, Gaskell uses Wives and Daughters to reveal the deeper implications of dress culture. As this paper will explore, much of the novel subtly revolves around appropriate attire, or lack thereof, and outlines the extent to which fashion and manners could impact romance, create financial difficulties, and preclude social advancement.

Ms. Storrs is a second year graduate student from the History Department at Illinois State. Her area of study is 19th and early 20th century women’s and cultural history, with an emphasis on visual and material culture. Drawing heavily from American and British Victorian publications, her thesis focuses on socio-cultural ideals and feminine agency represented in mid to late 19th century women’s clothing. However, as a cultural historian, Ms. Storrs believes that a wide variety of artifacts may be “read” as text, because they too provide crucial insight into the social, political, racial, economic, class/caste, and gendered aspects of a particular culture’s past (as well as its present condition).

Abstract:How do we narrate violence in ways that elide the complexities of affective life in the early twenty-first century? How can contemporary life writing scholarship contribute to an understanding of violence in its myriad forms? This two-part presentation examines the rhetorics of violence across genres and disciplines, including children’s literature, memoir, and family history while theorizing the ways in which the narration of aging, identity, secrets, and silence itself constitutes a form of violence. This work, coming out of a semester-long inquiry embodying the central tenets of the English Studies model, reveals the complex multi-dimensionality of violence as it is conceptualized in transdisciplinary spaces.

Because this presentation represents the in(ter)dependent work of five English Studies scholars, we request a two-panel, back-to-back session. We plan to divide our time into a brief introduction and four robust presentations.

Kathleen Daly, Stephanie Guedet Scott, Debbie Parker, Amy Robillard, and Elizabeth Williams participated in what they like to call an interdependent study in Fall 2012 called Life Writing and Rhetorics of Violence. Their work together was interdisciplinary, collaborative, and intimate. As such, individual biographies would constitute a kind of rhetorical violence that their work refuses.

Abstract: How do we narrate violence in ways that elide the complexities of affective life in the early twenty-first century? How can contemporary life writing scholarship contribute to an understanding of violence in its myriad forms? This two-part presentation examines the rhetorics of violence across genres and disciplines, including children’s literature, memoir, and family history while theorizing the ways in which the narration of aging, identity, secrets, and silence itself constitutes a form of violence. This work, coming out of a semester-long inquiry embodying the central tenets of the English Studies model, reveals the complex multi-dimensionality of violence as it is conceptualized in transdisciplinary spaces.

Because this presentation represents the in(ter)dependent work of five English Studies scholars, we request a two-panel, back-to-back session. We plan to divide our time into a brief introduction and four robust presentations.

Kathleen Daly, Stephanie Guedet Scott, Debbie Parker, Amy Robillard, and Elizabeth Williams participated in what they like to call an interdependent study in Fall 2012 called Life
Writing and Rhetorics of Violence. Their work together was
interdisciplinary, collaborative, and intimate. As such, individual
biographies would constitute a kind of rhetorical violence that their
work refuses.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Only 28 more abstract-writing days left until the priority deadline for the New Directions Symposium. Read the CFP and access the handy online submission form here. Your presentation could be the next best hybrid genre since taco-stuffed lobster!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

We're happy to announce that the 2013 Call for Papers is now online! For graduate students in English Studies and related fields, the early bird deadline for proposals is November 14th. So submit early, and we'll let you know by November 28th whether or not you've been accepted.

I mean, sure, you could wait to submit...and you could wait to hear back from us...but why would you? Tell us what you'd like to present in 300 words, and then take some time over Winter Break proofing your work. You can use our proposal process as the first step to writing that massive paper due for your English Studies seminar. You know the one - the paper you already fear, even though it isn't due until December...